


What We Did For Love!

by ManifestMerlin



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Alternate Universe - Pokemon Fusion, Coordinator Shiro, Elite Four Lance, Fluff, M/M, Meet-Cute, Minor Allura/Lotor (Voltron), Minor everyone except for Shance rly, Pokemon, The lions are Eeveelutions, The pokemon ship it
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-28
Updated: 2020-05-28
Packaged: 2021-03-03 04:01:01
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,759
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24418525
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ManifestMerlin/pseuds/ManifestMerlin
Summary: Lance was beginning to wonder if giving in to Pidge’s request to take her place as a contest judge was a good idea. Sure it had seemed harmless at the time, but between not knowing a thing about contests; the host, a short, green-haired man named Bob, having precisely too much energy; and the contest only having an appeal stage, the ‘Elite Flirt of the Elite Four’, was ready to drop.Well, that was before 'The Black Knight' took the stage.AKA a Meet Cute between Elite Four Lance and Coordinator Shiro.AAKA my piece for the Shance Anthology Zine!
Relationships: Lance/Shiro (Voltron)
Comments: 5
Kudos: 33





	What We Did For Love!

**Author's Note:**

> WOOO POSTING THIS LATE BUT THE ART FOR THIS ZINE PIECE GOT POSTED SO KICKED MY REAR IN GEAR TO DO SO! This was my piece for the Shance Anthology Zine!  
> Art for it here -> https://twitter.com/rustdustshuffle/status/1265821258320457729?s=20  
> (It's really FRICKING good go check it out)

Lance kicked a stray pebble down the road as he walked into town. He hadn’t visited Pidge in… what? Had to have been a few months at this point. Although as he watched people’s eyes lock on to him, he wished it could’ve been more inconspicuous.   
“Is that really him?” he heard a girl sitting at a cafe whisper.

“Looks like him… That get up is a dead giveaway, plus who else could it be?” her companion whispered back, giving a quick furtive glance in Lance’s direction before turning back to whisper something.

The first people to actually approach him, as per usual, were kids. 

“Hey mister! What’s it like being a member of the elite four?”   
“Can you show us your pokemon? Pleaaaassseee!”

“What are you doing here? Are you going to battle Mrs. Katie? My mom said that the elite four has to battle Gym Leaders who don’t do their job and Mrs. Katie is always shut away in her Gym-.”   
“Okay okay! Hold your horseas there!” Lance chuckled. “It’s a lot simpler than that, I’m just here as a... guest.”   
“Ohhhhh! You’re gonna judge the contest!”   
“You got it sweetheart.” Lance said ruffling the little girl’s hair.

“Why?” asked one of the little boys.   
“Because it’s… my job…?” Lance replied.

“Why is it your job?” he asked again.   
“Oh you know… Just is.”

*****Yesterday*****

“Laaaannceee.” Came the voice from the other end of the phone. “Pleaaaseee, I don’t have the time.”   
“No you just don’t want to.” Lance replied as he pinched the bridge of his nose.

“I have better things to do than judge a contest! I don’t even  _ know _ anything about contests!” Pidge shot back.

“So is this one of the rare times you admit that I know more than you? At something?” Lance grinned.   
“Don’t sound so smug, you’re just better in crowds. I could be a contest genius and you still couldn’t pay me to sit in a contest hall for a few hours, even in the judge’s sea- Hey! No! Stop messing with the switches! Bad Leafeon!” Pidge shouted.

Lance stifled a laugh, “Green having fun?”

“I by ‘fun’ you mean messing around with my gym puzzle then yes, she’s having fun.” Pidge grumbled. “So can you make it or what?”

“Olkarion, tomorrow at three?” Lance sighed.   
“Yup!”   
“You owe me for this Pidge.”   
“I’ll fix up the waterworks in your arena.”   
“Deal.”

*****Present*****

Lance had managed to get away from the kids, and their parents, and all the other people who wanted to talk to him as he walked through Olkarion. The contest hall wasn’t hard to find, it was actually only a block away from the gym. Thankfully there weren’t any challengers since Pidge had closed it for repairs. Was wearing his flashy Elite Four uniform a smart choice for going out in public? Probably not. Did Lance have any other fancy clothes to wear? Also no.

Lance didn’t have time to worry about his wardrobe inadequacy as he was ushered into the contest hall and under a curtain right in front of the stage.

“Oh hello there! You must be Lance!”   
Apparently the other two judges had gotten there before him, in the middle chair sat a beaming blonde woman clad in a simple contest dress waving at him.

“Ah and you must be Romelle! Yeah I’m Lance, but you can call me anytime~” Lance replied with a wink.

Romelle was one of the top coordinators in the region, she had apparently been taking some time off from contests to spend more time with her family, so it wasn’t surprising that she had been picked as a judge. Meanwhile it seemed the other judge…   
“Really Lance? You just got here and you’re  _ already  _ flirting?” said the platinum-blond haired man sitting next to Romelle.   
“Well well well, hello there Lotor, didn’t think you would be interested in being a contest judge.” Lance replied.

“I’m not, but my dear old  _ father _ is the sponsor and  _ he  _ wasn’t going to bother himself with a contest.” Lotor grumbled.

Lance took his seat and gave Lotor an understanding smile, everyone who had ever met Zarkon became better gifters on Father's day.    
“I was quite excited to hear you would be joining us!” Romelle broke the silence, “After all, I had no idea you were so interested in contests that you’d help as a judge!”

“Haha yeah you know… I just love seeing contests and all the… splendor. And performance.” Lance said awkwardly.

Romelle just smiled sincerely back at him, Lotor meanwhile placed his head on his fist and simply mouthed out ‘I at least did some research.’

Lance was spared from having to further display his own lack of knowledge as the sound of footsteps and excited chatter began filling the space around them, the curtain surrounding them didn’t do much to block out the bright neon lights as the silhouette of the host moved to the center of the stage.

“Helllooo there ladies and gentlemen! We’re coming at you live from the Olkarion contest hall with the latest show of the season! As always, I am your host Bob! We have some truly fan _ tastic _ coordinators performing here today for you all but before that we need to introduce our panel of judges! The first of the bunch is here representing our gracious sponsor for the event: Galra Co.! He’s the man in the purple suit with a flair for the  _ poisonous, _ iiiiiiiiitssss LOTOR DAIBAZALL!”

Suddenly, a few pieces of dividing cloth came down between Lance and the other judges. Lance looked up to see the corner of Lotor’s cloth ascend out of sight before the announcer’s voice interrupted his thoughts again.

The crowd started cheering and Lance could practically  _ see  _ the played up smile and the theme park hand waving Lotor was giving right now.

“So, Mr. Daibazall-” Bob began.   
“Please, call me Lotor.”

“So Lotor, there’s been some rumors lately… Supposedly the champion’s Sylveon was seen hanging out over at your house, playing with your… Skorupi was it?”

“Couldn’t say for sure, last magazine I saw said it was my Muk. Odd story that one was, considering I haven’t got a Muk!” Lotor laughed, followed by the audience joining in.

“I suppose you can’t trust everything you read in the tabloids eh? But is there any truth to those rumors? Hmmmm?”

“No comment.” Lotor replied as both Bob and the audience both oooo'd at the non-answer.   
“Well well well how  _ interesting!  _ And are you excited for today’s contest?”   
“Well I was able to check the profiles of the contestants beforehand so… Yes, quite excited indeed.”   
_ “Bullshit.”  _ Lance thought to himself,  _ “You’d rather be posing with Allura to mess with the paparazzi.” _   
“Oooo insider info! Does that mean you can tell us who’s got the best shot of winning this thing?”   
“No comment.” Lotor said, probably with that same smile on his face all over again.    
Bob laughed for a bit, “Well guess I can’t see if put my money where the mons are! Our next judge is the top tier coordinator herself! Here today to bring her expertise to the judging side of things! Iiiitsss ROMELLE!”

Lance felt the curtain surrounding Romelle go up as the crowd cheered even harder than they had for Lotor, leaving him the only one out of sight.   
“Hello there Romelle! It is a  _ pleasure  _ to see you back in this fine hall today, although I suppose now the tables have turned haven’t they? When you first showed up here if I recall the judges gave you  _ quite  _ the rough reception eh? You think any of the contestants will be able to surpass you?”   
Romelle gave a light, clear laugh, “They can  **try** .” her voice went dark.

“Wo-o-oahhhh! That’s Romelle’s famous competitive streak right there! Now on to our last judge! He’s the water type master who can’t stay out of the waves, he’s the Elite Flirt of the Elite Four! Iiiitttt’ssss LANCE MCCLAIN!”   
The curtain around Lance rose up, and he rushed his face into what he hoped was a pleasant smile.

“Hey there hotshot!” Bob said, without the curtain Lance could now see he was a short, thin man with oddly shaped green hair a tacky white suit, he held a microphone in one hand as he rested his elbow on the judge’s table. “Now what’s a big wig Elite Four member doing here judging a Pokemon contest? Isn’t that sorta… not your expertise?”   
Lance gave an overexaggerated gasp, “Are you implying I don’t know what it takes to look good?”

“What nooo! Of course not! But your specialty is battling isn’t it? And Olkarion’s contest doesn’t have a battle stage. It’s only performance here.”

_ “Fuck, that’s what I was counting on…” _ Lance thought to himself.   
“Well it’s still possible to… tell a trainer’s bond with their Pokemon even when they’re just performing.”   
“Bonds huh? Well let’s see what you think of the bonds of our first contestants!” Bob said, twirling away to the side, “The doggy duo! Olia and Herdier!”

A woman walked onto the stage after Bob finished, she was dressed in a rustic pilot’s outfit, her cap decorated with floppy ears and a tail was clipped on to the back of her pants.

Her Pokemon was following close behind, taking the lead center stage when she stopped moving.

Over the next two minutes the two of them performed their routine, full of leaps, twirls, lightning, poison, spontaneous indoor weather changes, and Lance wondering why exactly the type was called ‘normal’ again.

“Annnnd that was our first contestant! Judges, it’s time for your scores!” Bob said after the duo had finished.

“While not being anything  _ particularly  _ special, it was still executed and planned wonderfully.” Lotor said, holding up a large square card with a seven.

“You and your Pokemon both prepared yourself well, Herdier has an infamously hard to groom pelt, but yours is glossy and fluffy! Excellent work.” Romelle added, holding up her card, an eight.

“You and your Pokemon… Did very well. Your performance was very nice.” Lance stumbled, seemingly everyone wordlessly staring at him as he cleared his throat. “However, while you and your Pokemon were mostly in sync… the performance had an… awkwardness to it. It seems like you two still have some work to do on that front, but the performance was spectacular and it doesn’t hurt that both coordinator and Pokemon are looking their best~.” Lance finished, throwing out a finger gun. Thankfully, the audience laughed. Lance gave her a seven.

“Annnnd that’s a total score of TWENTY-TWO!” Bob said, “A solid start to our contest and some good feedback for our judges! But we’re not over yet, it’s time for contestanttt NUMBER TWO!”

*************

As it turned out, half the stages meant double the contestants. Lance worked his way through with a combination of flirting, talking about bonds, and hoping he looked like he knew what he was talking about. But by the time they had gotten to the final coordinator, Lance felt exhausted, and everyone else looked like it too. Even Bob was starting to sound a bit tired.

“And now… our… FINAL contestant… The Dark Knight, and his Bisharp, TAKASHIII Shirogane…!”

Onto the stage came a man dressed in… full armor? It was pitch black, and seemed mostly ornamental. The Bisharp walked in step beside it’s trainer, and they both bowed to the judge’s table before turning towards each other and taking a fighting stance.

“Well this is od-” Romelle began before being cut off by the sharp metallic ring of metal.

Lance’s mouth dropped open as he watched the, apparently BLADED, gauntlet of the coordinator intercept the attack from his Pokemon. 

The contest hall had turned deathly quiet, letting the clanging noises echo through the room. The fight seemed full of near misses, the bisharp’s blades just barely missing the coordinator as they practically danced around the stage. Hell, even when the bisharp started flinging psycho cuts at it’s trainer, they were all dodged with ease. 

It was terrifying to watch, it was utterly confounding, and it. Was. BEAUTIFUL. Lance had never seen anything like it before, the bright sparks that flew off everytime they clashed, their graceful movements, the splendor and gallantry of the two participants, it was all leagues ahead of anything else they had seen. 

The fight seemed to be winding down finally, that was until the Bisharp jumped back, and crossed it’s suddenly glowing arms in front of itself and charged. Lance felt a chill down his spine as he realized that it couldn’t be aiming anywhere BUT the neck. Was this guy really crazy enough to potentially get guillotined for a contest?   
It felt like the world had gone into slow motion as the bisharp’s blades sped towards it’s trainer’s neck. Then it all returned to normal as the trainer raised one arm, and parried the attack, throwing the pokemon backwards to land on its feet. The trainer -Takashi, Bob had said- removed his helmet, and then bowed towards the judge’s table once again, as did his Pokemon.

One time while fixing up a PC, Pidge had accidentally swapped the wrong wires. Or something. The PC had done nothing but make sputtering noises as it’s screen flickered random colors.

Lance was pretty sure that was what he looked like now because DAMN was Takashi Shirogane hot as hell. Most of his hair was black, but he had a floof of white hair that draped down his forehead. A gnarly scar also crossed across his nose. 

“That was…” Lotor began, “I just don’t have words for how perfectly that was executed, there was no room for error, and you both nailed it.” He finished, holding up his scorecard.

“You and your Pokemon were both shining out there, figuratively  _ and _ literally. I’m even feeling a little threatened!” Romelle said with a smile, displaying her scorecard as well.

“You… I… I’ve never even SEEN a bond so strong that you’d risk getting sliced in half, multiple times, and also manage to NOT get sliced in half.” Lance rambled, “No one I know could do what you just did, and I certainly wouldn’t try either!”

“Both performance and trainer were absolutely breathtaking~.” He said, throwing out another pair of finger guns and a wink before revealing his scorecard.   
Takashi’s face melted into utter shock as Bob finally came to his senses.

“Everyone I CAN NOT BELIEVE IT! THREE TENS! WE HAVE A PERFECT SCORE OF THIRTY!!!”

The crowd erupted into cheers, after all, the highest score up to that point had been Olia’s twenty-two. 

*************

Shiro was sitting in his dressing room, having changed back into his normal clothes.

“He called me  _ breathtaking! _ I mean I know he was flirting with everyone, but he called me breathtaking! Breathtaking! Zorua do you even realize what the FUCK just happened?” He said, holding the black, fox-like Pokemon in his hands.

He got a small yip and a head tilt, so no, Zorua did not realize what just happened. What had happened was Shiro getting acknowledged by his crush. When he found out Lance would be  _ judging _ the contest he had almost dropped out of the contest, but he had needed to win his first ribbon.

“Guess I should be glad I didn’t drop out after all, huh?”   
Zorua just curled up in his lap.   
Shiro sighed and returned her to her pokeball --before walking out of the contest hall, slinging his bag over his prosthetic.

As he walked out into the streets of Olkarion, he looked out at the beach.

“Right. No water types… Guess it’s the long way around for me.” He sighed.

“Need some help crossing the waves?” came a voice from behind him.

Shiro turned around to see- Oh fuck it was Lance.

“If you can’t get across I could help you out. Where you heading?”

“Ba-Balmera, but it’s fine really, I don’t want to inconvenience you and you probably have better things to do so I’ll ju-” Shiro stuttered.

“What? No it’s fine, I have to head over there anyways.” Lance replied.

“R-really? Still I don’t want your Pokemon to have extra work deal-”   
“Lapras can seat two it’ll be fine!” Lance interrupted, walking towards the shore and gesturing for Shiro to follow him.

Shiro tentatively followed Lance to the shoreline, watching as Lance took a pokeball from his belt and tossed it in front of him.

Out popped a Lapras, who leaned it’s head down to nuzzle Lance.

“Hey there girl.” Lance chuckled affectionately. “It’s good to see you again, but it’s only been a few hours!”

_ “God I wish that was me.” _ Shiro thought to himself as Lance stroked and pet the Lapras.

“We’re headed over to Hunk’s okay?” Lance said, waiting to hear the Pokemon’s answered burble before gesturing to Shiro to get on it’s back. 

Shiro gingerly inched closer as the Pokemon watched him with its large eyes, before finally hoisting himself onto its shelled back. Lance followed suit and leapt on with practiced ease.   
The large Pokemon then slid into the surf before picking up speed as it left the shallows of the beach for the open waters of the sea. They had been ‘sailing’ for a few minutes before either of them spoke.

“So what are you heading to Balmera for?” They said in unison.

They stared at each other before bursting into laughter.   
“You first,” Lance said, “Although I’m pretty sure I can guess.”

“Got another contest.”

“Never mind, I thought you were going to beat up the mafia to foil their plot to take over the world.” Lance shook his head as he slid down to sit next to Shiro.

Shiro unsuccessfully coughed to cover up his laughs, “Thought that might be more your thing?”

“Nah, I’m just going over to visit another friend of mine, gym leader.”

“Ah I see.” Shiro said lamely. Lance was easier to talk to than he expected, but it still felt awkward just… chatting with a celebrity, a celebrity who had randomly decided to rideshare him across the sea. 

“So… Takashi was it?”   
“Shiro, the only people who call me Takashi are my grandparents.”

“Gotcha, so Shiro… what made you wanna do the whole contests thing?” Lance asked.

“What made you wanna do the whole ‘Elite Four’ thing?” Shiro replied.   
“I asked first!”   
“I asked second!”

Lance rolled his eyes, “It’s nothing special, my rival was starting his journey and so were a lot of my friends, and I wasn’t going to be left behind, so I did the gym challenge, got to the elite four, lost, but then one of them was looking to retire so he took me on as an ‘apprentice’. After he retired I got to take his spot.” Lance said. “Your turn now!”

“Uh well… Dad always thought I was gonna do that… The gym challenge. But my mom was a pretty big deal in her heyday, Top Coordinator actually, so I kinda… left. Annnd then I just… started going to contests.”

“Really? How many ribbons do you have so far?” Lance inquired.

“Well… about that…” Shiro rubbed his neck sheepishly, “Only one so far.”

Lance stared at him, his mouth hanging open, “That was your FIRST WIN?”   
“Yeah… it took a while to perfect the routine.”

“Well… Not sure you’ll be having to worry about that anymore. That one performance is probably enough to win every contest in the damn region.” Lance replied.

Shiro stared at him, “You… Don’t watch contests much. Do you?”   
“I- well no but-”   
Shiro leaned back, “It was good, sure, but I can’t have just one routine. Besides, there’s plenty of talented coordinators competing, sure I might have won right now, but that doesn’t mean I’m at the top, not yet. If I stop trying to improve… then what’s the point? I’m guaranteed to lose if I don’t move forward… so complacency isn’t really an option…”

Shiro glanced up to see Lance staring at him and he scratched his neck self consciously. “Sorry, probably don’t wanna hear a stranger just dump their whole… that. When all you did was give me a compliment.”

“No! I mean- it’s cool.” Lance replied quickly.

“Cool?”   
“Yeah cool! That’s what I like about being in the elite four.” Lance said, looking up at the slowly setting sun. “The constant drive to get stronger… Everyone giving their all to push harder and harder… It’s just so… cool.”

“I feel like you could use a better word there.” Shiro replied.   
“Probably. But I like ‘cool’, plus, cool is what I say when I want Lapras here to-” Lance began before being cut off as the both of them were suddenly assaulted by a blast of frigid air.

Shiro brushed the snow off of his face to see Lance ranting angrily at said Lapras, who was looking quite pleased with herself.

It was just so absurd Shiro couldn’t help but laugh. Lance replied by throwing a pout in Shiro’s direction.

Shiro brushed the snow off of Lance’s head. “Be careful with that, your face is turning red, don’t wanna catch a cold.”

Lance coughed slightly. “Y-yeah, that would sure put a damper on the league championship!” He laughed nervously, his face not fully returning to hue. 

“Anyways!” Lance said looking over his shoulder, “Looks like we’re here!”

They were indeed, it was only a minute of waiting in awkward silence until Lapras slid onto the shore, letting her two passengers hop off. 

“Thank you again, I don’t know how I can repay you for this.” Shiro said.   
“Well… There’s one thing.” Lance replied after closing his eyes for a bit.

“There… is?”   
“I need a big number separated at regular intervals… Yours would do fine!” Lance said, flashing his finger guns again.

Shiro’s mouth fell open as he stared at Lance. “I-I-”

Lance’s hands fell to his sides as he sighed. “Nah it’s fine you don’t have to. Sorry if I made it weird.”   
“N-no it’s fine! I’d love y- to! I’d love to!” Shiro stuttered as he pulled out his phone.

Lance’s face lit up in a grin, “Really? Great!”

After exchanging numbers with Lance, Shiro walked away waving. When he was safely out of view he looked down at the contact in his phone.   
**Lance McClain** 💙

Fuck. He had a crush, didn't he?

*************

“HUNK!” Lance shouted as he charged into the gym waving his phone.   
“Oh hey Lance what’s u- Oh no.” Hunk said, as he turned around to look at Lance his face visibly paling.   
“I GOT A CUTE BOY’S NUMBER!”

“Oh! Hey that’s great!”   
“I DON’T KNOW WHAT TO DO THIS HASN’T HAPPENED TO ME BEFORE!”   
“Just… talk to him?” Hunk said slowly.

“But I-”

“No buts,” Hunk interrupted, “you’ll just have to talk to him. If you got his number it can’t be that hard.”

*****One Week Later*****

Hunk was, unsurprisingly, right. Talking with Shiro just felt so... natural. If Lance didn’t know any better he would’ve readily told anyone that he had known Shiro his entire life. Shiro regularly kept him updated on how his journey was going, which town he had reached, where he had placed in a recent contest, that sort of thing. Today though, things had been a bit different.

**LM:** what r u up to now?   
**TS:** Nothing much   
**TS:** Just camping on rt 162   
**TS:** Headed to the next town and all

Lance looked up at the directional signs as he walked down the lightly forested path, ‘Route 162’.    
**LM:** where exactly on the rt?

**TS:** Uhhh   
**TS:** Theres this big tree   
**TS:** Got a bunch of  Pok é mon crawling on it   
**TS:** Why   
Lance knew where that was, it was only about five minutes away actually. Two minutes later and Lance was rounding the corner to see a tent set up under the billowing branches of the tree. Shiro was sitting cross-legged in front of it, playing with a  Pok é mon in his lap.

“Yooo!” Lance shouted as he walked forward, startling the  Pok é mon out of Shiro’s lap and behind its trainer.   
“Lance?” Shiro looked up in surprise, “Lance! I didn’t think I’d see you so soon!”

“Well I was in the area, so I thought I would stop by! What are you up to?” Lance said as he sat down across from Shiro.

“Oh you know- where did you-,” Shiro said turning around to pick up his  Pok é mon , plopping it back in his lap. “Just working on my routine with Black here!” he said as he patted the Umbreon in his lap.

The  Pok é mon tilted its head as it examined Lance, giving him the opportunity to do the same.   
“Wait- Whoa… It’s shiny!” Lance said, observing the Umbreon’s unusual blue rings and bright yellow eyes.

"Don't praise her too much." Shiro chuckled, "She'll get full of herself!" He said, getting a light smack on the nose from the dark type in his lap.

Lance nodded, "I feel ya. Eeveelutions always seem to think they're Arceus' gift to trainers don't they. The worst part is they have every right to be. Honestly, so annoying," he finished dryly.

“Speaking from experience are you?” Shiro teased.   
“Oh you know full well I am.” Lance snorted.

“I suppose so, everyone has seen that Vaporeon of yours in action.”   
“Yeah Blue can be… quite the character when she wants to be.” Lance said, “Actually… Do you wanna see her?”

Shiro’s eyes lit up. “Sure!” he said.

Lance grinned as he tossed out a pokeball, and in a flash of light out popped the amphibious  Pok é mon in question.

Blue was, as per usual, posing for the nonexistent cameras. When she realized that the only ones looking at her were Shiro and Black, she inspected them in turn before Black and she began circling each other intently. In a few moments they were tumbling and playing around the tree together.

“Well they seem to be fast friends.” Lance remarked. “So how’s your routine coming along?”

“Oh that? It… sure is coming… along… technically.” Shiro mumbled.

“Yikes, that bad?”

“Yeah… I’ve been having trouble making a routine that the two of us can do that’s… unique. You saw me and Bisharp, and my last contest-” Shiro began.

“You mega evolved your Absol, and flew around on it.” Lance finished.

“W- Yes? How did you know that?” Shiro asked.

“I watched the contest on TV.” Lance shrugged. “After that first one, you bet I wanted to watch every contest you were in!”

Shiro stared at Lance as his cheeks flushed. “O-oh… was it good?”    
“Dude, yes it was good! Every one of them has been good!”

“All of them? You’ve watched me more than once?” Shiro squawked.

“Of course I have!” Lance shook his head, “Even that one in Daibazall, y’know, with that one guy who kept complaining about the results? The sore loser?”

“You mean Sendak?” Shiro stifled a laugh.

“That’s the bitch.” Lance nodded solemnly, causing Shiro to laugh uncontrollably.

“He really is a bitch isn’t he.” Shiro said after he managed to stop laughing.

Lance was about to respond when his phone buzzed: some league business apparently. 

“Damn… Seems I gotta split for work. Blue! We’re going!” Lance called, the Vaporeon running over to him and jumping into his outstretched arms.   
“We should do this again sometime- for Black and Blue, they seem to like each other- I mean they’d probably like to hang out some more.” Shiro rambled off. 

“Yeah we should- for Black and Blue.” Lance replied quickly.

After Lance had walked away, only after a few dozen reminders to text him, Shiro texted someone who was, for once given the last week, not Lance.

**TS:** I TALKED TO HIM AGAIN AND HES PERFECT AND I LOVE HIM

**KK:** ffs   
**TS:** I WANT TO MARRY HIM AND LIVE WITH HIM AND COOK HIM BREAKFAST   
**KK:** For fucks sake Shiro why are you like this?

*****A Few Days Later*****

Lance got another text from Shiro during a league meeting, Allura was just updating them about the match schedule a few months in advance since all the challenger spots had been filled already.

**TS:** Im on my way to my next contest   
Attached was a selfie of Shiro, sitting on a beach, flashing a peace sign with his other hand.

**LM:** wow... can’t believe you stole my secret training spot! >:(   
**TS:** Wait really

**LM:** yeah! Water over there is p rough so it’s great for training my team. Gimme 5 mins to get outta this meeting and i’ll be there innn 10 mins

“Ahem.” Allura coughed, “Lance? Anything to add?”   
Lance looked up from his phone to see everyone looking at him.   
“Wh- No! Nope, nothing to add!” Lance stammered as he tucked his phone away.

“Anyone else then?” Allura asked, prompting a number of questions from Honerva about if she  _ really  _ still had to take it a bit easier on the youngsters and wouldn’t it be good if they could see just how strong one could be.   
Thankfully Kolivan helped Allura in reminding her that no, she couldn’t obliterate challengers with meteors for fun or Lance might have been stuck there all day.

When they were finally dismissed Lance was the first out of the door, but when he had reached the shore not far from the league to fiddle with his pokeballs, he was stopped by a hand on his shoulder. He turned around to see a pair of deeply red-tinted sunglasses.

“Where are you headed off to in such a rush?” Keith asked.

“How did you even catch up to me-” Lance began.   
“I’m fast,” Keith shrugged, “So what’s up? Was Allura really  _ that  _ boring?”

“No I just… Have to go somewhere.”

“Really? Where?”

“Training, obviously.” Lance rolled his eyes.

Keith cocked an eyebrow at him, “Really? Huh, you’re usually not the type to prepare for the league that much, normally you just talk all about how you’re going to win and then don’t get past the third round.” he teased.

“Better than getting stuck at the second.” Lance shot back, getting an embarrassed blush out of Keith.

“That’s just because you have type advantage and everyone knows it.” Keith scowled.

“Mhmm. Keep telling yourself that buddy.” Lance smirked, finally getting a handle on the right pokeball. “Anyways, I had really better be going! See ya!” he said before chucking his pokeball and calling out his Sharpedo. He hopped on the  Pok é mon , gripping its dorsal fin as it sped through the water on its way.

“Lance is acting weirder than usual…” Keith murmured to himself before his phone pinged. He opened it up to see a text from his friend.

**TS:** Help hes on his way again and idk what to do    
**KK:** why do ya even keep telling him where u r if every time you talk to him u get sent into gay panic mode?

**TS:** I DIDNT THIS TIME   
**TS:** HE JUST RECOGNIZED THAT I WAS AT HIS TRAINING SPOT

**TS:** I just sent him a pic of me on the beach and he said hed come after his meeting

_ “...Wait… No. No it can’t be. It can’t be.”  _ Keith thought to himself as he watched Lance get smaller and smaller as he sped towards his destination.

**KK:** God damn it it’s Lance isn’t it

**TS:** ...pls help me

**KK:** No.

*************

As Lance pulled into the small cove that Shiro had been at, he gave Sharpedo a pat on the snout and left him to swim around in the cove. He walked down the shore to where he could see Shiro sitting in the distance.

“Well hello there gorgeous~ You come here often?” he said.

Shiro whipped around with a smile on his face, “Lance! You sure got here fast.”

“What can I say?” Lance shrugged, “I’m always fashionably early for my dates.”   
Shiro chuckled as a blush rose up his neck. “I guess that makes me extra fashionable then?”   
“You know it babe~” Lance said, finger gunning. “Actually… How did you even get here? You need to cross the water to get here, and if my memory of our Lapras ride is accurate, you can’t do that.”

“Oh! Let me show you.” Shiro said as he raised his fingers to his mouth to make a high pitched whistle. “Here boy! Come on down and meet Lance!”

“Oh? Which member of your team are you going to introduce now?” Lance said, looking around, his eyes locking on a large dark colored bird that flew in from behind a rock to perch on Shiro’s arm. Thank goodness it had perched on his prosthesis; it was massive, around three feet tall and Shiro was holding it up like it weighed nothing. 

“Lance, meet Honchkrow, Honcho, meet Lance.” Shiro said, petting the feathery hat-shaped lobe on the  Pok é mon ’s head.

“Oh I see… So you got flown in?” Lance said, tentatively reaching up to pet the  Pok é mon after it had stopped glaring at him.

“Yeah, don’t worry about him, he doesn’t bite!” Shiro said.

_ “Maybe he wouldn’t bite YOU.” _ Lance thought to himself as ‘Honcho’ flapped its wings and took off from Shiro’s arm to preen on a nearby rock.

“Well the  Pok é mon certainly seem to be enjoying themselves.” Shiro remarked, looking over Lance’s shoulder. Lance turning to see his Sharpedo lazily moving through the water upside down, its tongue hanging out of its mouth comically.

Lance snorted, “Yeah, they enjoy clowning around once I get here… honestly don’t get much training done, it’s more of a place where I can let them all stretch their legs… or fins I guess.”

Shiro didn’t say anything, just slowly pulled the rest of his pokeballs from his belt and grinned.   
“...Y’know?” Lance began, “that’s a good idea,” he said, grabbing his pokeballs as well.

A cacophony of cries and light shone around them as they released all their  Pok é mon . It was… surprisingly unchaotic. The  Pok é mon wound up pairing off rather quickly, Blue and Black began running around together instantly, Lance’s sirenesque Primarina with Bisharp, Lapras and Honchkrow seemed to be bonding over their shared role in carrying their trainers around, Sharpedo and Absol were the two megas, Lance’s Milotic seemed to be enjoying Zorua sitting on its head, and Kingdra was hanging out with-

Lance yelped and fell down as Shiro opened his last pokeball, and out popped a massive, floating, three-headed dragon.

Shiro leaned down to help Lance to his feet. “You okay? Something wrong with Hydreigon here?” he asked.

Lance shook his head shakily, “other than being generally terrifying? No.”

Lance felt like he had just kicked a Lillipup as Shiro frowned at him, “What? Hydra here wouldn’t hurt anyone!”

“Honerva has one of those… They can hurt  _ anything _ .” 

“Aww… Hydra here isn’t like that, they wouldn’t hurt a flygon!” Shiro said, turning to hug all of the dragon’s heads and pat each of them on the forehead, “No you wouldn’t! No you wouldn’t~! Who’s a good three-headed puppy? You guys! I mean just a week ago you were just a tiny two headed dragon, couldn’t even fly! Now you’re big and strong and eat… eat a lot more… But you’re all so good yes you are~!” Shiro cooed.

Lance laughed nervously. “Well… if you say so…” 

“Well I do. ...Although now I'm curious, what’s Honerva’s like?” Shiro said, sitting down on the sand. 

“Oh BOY do I have some stories...” Lance said, sitting down next to Shiro. 

Lance regaled Shiro with stories about the rest of the Elite Four, apparently Shiro already knew Keith! Suspiciously, while Lance and Shiro were occupied Lance noticed that the  Pok é mon were talking more, whatever that meant when they could only say their own name. It almost seemed like they were plotting something… but Lance didn’t worry about it. Maybe he should have.

When Lance was explaining the time he had caught Kolivan with marshmallows stuck in his beard, they heard Blue and Black yowling.

They glanced at each other for a moment before rushing over to the sound.

As they rounded a boulder they saw the eeveelutions on the other side. Perfectly… fine? They didn’t have any time to react as they were suddenly pushed together from both sides, craning their heads around they could see the culprits as Honchkrow and Absol. They didn’t have time to worry about that, because Lance saw his Sharpedo shoot a stream of water that knocked Lance over, and Shiro with him. Then, there was a gorgeous song playing, Lance recognized Primarina’s voice, and Shiro recognized the violin-like hum of Bisharp’s blades against each other. Kingdra shot a spray of water into the air, but before they could get soaked the droplets were frozen by a blast of frigid air from Lapras, letting them hang in the air via twin telekinetic efforts from Zorua, and Milotic. Light began shining from Hydreigon’s mouth, and as it hit each of the ice crystals suspended in the air, it refracted, and the cove was lit from every angle by a beautiful rainbow. The sights… the sounds… the… compromised position they were in… it almost seemed like… 

“I can not believe our  Pok é mon just tried to turn our lives into a romantic comedy.” Lance exclaimed.

“Well I’m not the one who watched rom coms with my  Pok é mon .” Shiro replied. When Lance cocked an eyebrow, he said, “... Ok  _ usually _ .”

Everyone sat in silence, except the  Pok é mon playing the music, for a few minutes before Shiro broke the silence.

“H-hey Lance… when you said you’re always early for your date, were you serious about that?” Shiro said.

“...Well that depends.” Lance replied slowly.

“Depends on what??”

“Would you like that? If this was a date?”

Shiro was quiet for a moment again before speaking, “Well it would make this the best damn first date I’ve ever had, so I… can’t say I would be upset. What about you?”

“Well I’d have to say the same. Doesn’t hurt that it’s the best looking date I’ve had either.” Lance said with a grin.

Shiro laughed as his blush returned. “Can’t believe I’m on a date with such a dork.”

“Says the dork.” Lance retorted.

“Could a dork do this?”

“Do wha-” Lance began before feeling an arm around his neck pulling him down and then- He was kissing Shiro, and Shiro was kissing him. His lips tasted sweet, like fresh picked berries on a warm day. Lance might’ve gotten more into it if it wasn’t for the sounds of all their  Pok é mon cheering in their own disparate way.

“Well? Could a dork do that?” Shiro grinned up at him after they pulled away.   
“No I guess not. A boyfriend could maybe.” Lance smiled softly. 

“Really? I like the sound of that.” Shiro said.

“I do too.” Lance replied.

The two of them felt like they were on cloud nine, and in their minds, nothing would be changing that anytime soon.

*************

It was honestly quite the coincidence that Lance and Shiro had shared the same friend group without knowing it outside of Hunk. Shiro had grown up with Pidge’s brother, was one of Keith’s few friends, he was a family friend of Allura, and even Lotor was familiar with him. It was also the kind of coincidence that the new couple was currently cursing given their circumstances. Everyone had gotten to the league early in preparation of the tournament, which meant that everyone was in the same room to tease Shiro and Lance.

They had planned to keep their relationship a secret from the public for a while, but they had only made it a few months. They had gotten over excited after Shiro’s big contest win, Lance hadn’t gone fully incognito, and paparazzi being in the right place had led to the front page news story: ‘Altea’s NEWEST Celebrity Couple! Elite Coordination! The Fans call them: Shance’

Pidge was still laughing over the whole thing, and Hunk had been trying to calm her down for the last five minutes.

Allura and Lotor were trying to give them genuine, yet still teasing, advice on how to avoid the paparazzi. 

“I can’t believe they managed to get that picture.” Keith said, shaking his head. “What were you two thinking?”

They hadn’t been. That’s why the picture on the front cover was Shiro pushed up against the wall, and Lance kissing the ever loving daylights out of him.

**Author's Note:**

> Eyyy Notes:  
> 1\. The title is from an episode of the anime of the same name.  
> 2\. I spent... WAY too long picking team members lol.  
> 3\. The league is based on Kalos; The elite four is Lance as Siebold, Keith as Malva, Honerva as Drasna, and Kolivan as Wikstrom. Allura is Diantha. Pidge is (very loosely) Ramos mixed with Clemont, and Hunk is (loosely again) Grant.


End file.
